The player looks at total overall money. Options/no trade clauses, are extra to determine ties.

Not exactly true. Team options are a significant negative, in my experience, in contract negotiations; I've never even tried to offer a player option, so I don't know about that. Mutual options seem to be a slight negative, but it's very slight; team 1 would win in the case presented.

IIRC, from doing in season extensions w/ my own players. If a guy is looking for 5 mil a season over 2 years and you offer 5 mil a season over 2 years w/ the 2nd season being a team option, he'll decline. If you offer a similar contract, w/ the only difference being year 2 is a mutual option, the player will accept.

Just went through FA and asked an owner about options; team option the player will only look at the amount of money he'd make if the option was declined; mutual/player option he looks at the full amount

The player looks at total overall money. Options/no trade clauses, are extra to determine ties.

Not exactly true. Team options are a significant negative, in my experience, in contract negotiations; I've never even tried to offer a player option, so I don't know about that. Mutual options seem to be a slight negative, but it's very slight; team 1 would win in the case presented.

I've always considered mutual options to be 100% neutral. I've never had an issue in offering a FA the exact years and total salary he was demanding, but adding a mutual option to the final season of the contract.